The Revenge Of Alice Cooper – Q and A at The Union Chapel

Following a listen of the new album which captures the weirdness, individuality and magic of the early Alice Cooper albums, Alice himself and early band members Dennis Dunaway, Neil Smith and Michael Bruce, and ‘fifth member of the band’ Bob Ezrin met at the Union Chapel to discuss the new album, fielding questions from the fans compèred by Sir Tim Rice.

Explaining Bob Ezrin’s presence, he became like the fifth member of the band when, instead of firing them as instructed to do so, he signed them on a whim, because he was inspired by the strange midnight show he attended where everyone had spider eyes, spandex, ghostly faces, black hair and lipstick, and songs that everybody already knew the lyrics to even if they were unreleased. Ezrin’s status was secured when if something was wrong with a track in the studio, he always knew how to iron any problems out. Alice used the example ‘I’m Eighteen’. Bob told them to dumb it down, not adding so much detail, and afterwards Alice realised that simplicity was powerful. (The band wrote I’m Eighteen when Warner Bros told them the biggest record buyer was an eighteen year old still living at home, but already had a job. Bob recalled when he first heard the song the live music was so loud he thought they were singing “I’m Edgy” and none of the band understood what he was talking about when afterwards he kept asking them to play the ‘Edgy’ song.)

One of the reasons the new album sounds similar to the old days is Dennis used all the same gear as the old days, even down to the type of Herco Ghastly Green guitar pick he see in the Seventies which is very hard to find these days. They also used a recording Dennis had kept of Glen Buxton (original band guitar player who wrote the riff to ‘School’s Out’) playing. Ezrin engineered it to make it the right tempo. If Buxton didn’t like someone he would say ‘What a Syd!’ and this expression has been used for a song on the album about him. Even posthumously the band are still playing jokes on each other! Dennis wrote the lyrics to the song ‘Blood On The Sun’ on the new album from lacing together film titles from TV Guides, inspired by the fact that Buxton used to collect them. Alice recalled that Glenn always came up with the weirdest things in songs that made Alice go “what is THAT?” But they always worked! Michael recalled Buxton wore a bone hanging from his ear and a chicken leg hanging from his necklace and Bob remembered that Buxton made a clanking noise wherever he went as a result.

When asked about the venue for the event being a church, Alice commented that he grew up in a Christian home and did not realise until later that almost all his songs had some religious meaning. Other people had called them “biblical”.

The band said that working together on the album they reverted to high school kids, making even stupider jokes than ever, referencing the Bowery Boys or old horror movies. Alice said “It was like no time had gone by. It felt natural to me. We had a hard time not smiling.” The band also used to play together live in the studio and they did this again on this new album. Bob commented “the spirit between them can’t be fabricated” and said the band members were all fans of what all the others could do and this elevates the energy and positivity. When asked if there were ever any negative meltdowns, all bands members in unison shouted “Yes!”.

The band were all huge fans of the British Invasion music and Alice said they wanted to sound like The Yardbirds or The Who with their own twist. Indeed there’s a Yardbirds track on the new album ‘I Ain’t Done Wrong”. Neil said that because of this and their love of old British movies such as James Bond and horror flicks the band always felt at home in the UK. Even when they had attracted negative publicity, such as Mary Whitehouse saying they were damaging British culture and should be deported, they loved it and Alice sent her flowers (because it only meant more people bought records and came to shows. She was apparently mystified why Alice loved her.)

When asked about challenges when playing songs in the old days Dennis recalled he remembered perspiring and rushing to get takes in the studio before Keith Moon and Harry Nilsson arrived, because they would always turn up plastered and knock things over. Bob remembered that after TOTP one time, after a lengthy session at the BBC bar, Keith Moon, Marc Bolan, Harry Nilsson and others all arrived “like a clown car” so drunk at the studio they could scarcely speak. Moon couldn’t even stay on his stool, never mind play. This drunk crew all proceeded to play instruments they didn’t usually play. Ezrin said the resulting cacophony was so horrible he had to ask them to leave, and when he took drum sticks out of someone ‘s hands, they were oblivious and kept playing. Nilsson continued to turn up at the studio on other occasions afterwards all the time to try and tell Alice what to do!

When asked “Why now?” for a new album together Alice said that the idea was always swirling around, but everything had to be in the right place.

As a bonus track on the new album Ezrin had cleaned up an original recording of ‘Return Of The Spiders’ with AI to isolate the sound of each instrument to make it more sonically pleasing. Dennis recalled he originally wrote the song in the early days to get the audience’s attention, and to stop them hurling insults and heading to the exit. Also, as a bonus track on the new album the instrumental ‘Titanic Over-Underture’ has been made longer and Alice has added lyrics to give it “a voice”.

When asked if they will make another album Alice agreed this new album may well not be a one off project and Ezrin agreed they all had a good time, Dennis saying “Why not?”. When asked if the band should do another, the audience screamed “yes”. Alice said that like Ozzy, The Stones, The Beatles and Bob Dylan the band were “lifers”, not doing it for the money, they were going to do it until they couldn’t. He noted that Ozzy was not in good physical shape and he still did it, and he only had respect for that. When Ozzy died “a giant boulder crashed, but Rock will roll on.”

When asked about getting younger fans Alice said “we’re more Punk Rock that they are” and commented that whatever musical trends are up at the time, guitar based hard rock still keeps rolling on straight through.

When asked if Alice would write a Broadway play Alice said ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ was one without dilution, “hard rock all the way”. Dennis remembered that they would self-direct in the early days and have meetings to decide how to kill Alice next. When Sir Tim was ask if he would stage an Alice Cooper story show in the West End Sir Tim said he’d put money into the idea. Alice deadpanned “If Johnny Depp were a little better looking he could play me”.

When an audience member asked “what is it that makes us want to love you”. Alice quipped “Just look at us!” with a wink.

Dawn Osborne